In this professional learning program teachers will learn how to use basic elements and principles of design as a means of communicating ideas. Through designing their own artworks in a series of exercises that build from simple and quick, to more intentionally social-emotionally driven, and then curriculum-driven, teachers will be able to share a design language with their students. These experiences invite students to express their understanding of curriculum concepts and/or social-emotional concepts by employing the elements and principles of design. Teachers will learn to create abstracted visual representations of ideas and use those visual creations as a starting point for verbal and/or written explanation of concepts represented.

Recommended Participants:

Teachers, Visual Arts Specialists, Learning Intentions

Participants will:

• engage first-hand in the excitement of learning the language of design.
• analyze the meaning of a concept and appraise options for how to create an abstracted visual design that represents that concept.
• assess their work in comparison with responses on the same topic.
• differentiate the nuance of meaning created in small design choices.
• engage in guided reflection.
• analyze the visual work of others and draw clues from these creations that connect to meaning.
• state how personal reflections connect visual facts in the work they are analyzing to the meaning they have understood.
• examine nuance through comparing one design to another.

YA Connections

• NJSLS-VPA: Artistic Process; Creating; Anchor Standard 1: Conceptualizing & Generating Ideas
• NJSLS-VPA: Artistic Process; Responding
• Anchor Standard 7: Perceiving and Analyzing Products
• Social Emotional Learning

Professional Standards for Educational Leaders

• Standard 4: Curriculum, Instruction & Assessment